


Good Things Come In Small Packages

by Lirillith



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Body Hair, Drabble Collection, F/M, Family, Ficlet Collection, Food, Friendship/Love, Gen, M/M, Triple Drabble
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-30
Updated: 2013-05-28
Packaged: 2017-12-10 00:20:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/779644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirillith/pseuds/Lirillith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collecting drabbles and short one-offs I've written and never bothered to post.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. April Showers

It took Pao-lin a little while. She needed to find the time in a packed schedule to slip away on her own, and she needed to find a place she could reach easily by train and on foot. The name struck her as kind of funny — nursery, like a place to take care of children — considering what had made her want to buy a flower in the first place.

And then once she was at the nursery, she had to find the asters, which was a bit harder than she’d expected, especially trying to find one about the color of her hair clip. Pao-lin knew what her parents had meant with the gift, but it still felt strange having something stuck in her hair that way, just like it felt weird when Karina did her nails at a sleepover, or when she had to wear makeup for a TV appearance. And she couldn’t help worrying that it might fall out. She kept fiddling with it, readjusting it. That was why she was shopping here instead.

She bought the flower pot, and the plant, and she felt a little silly making her way home on the train, but if her parents were thinking of her, she could think of them, too. It was a reminder, one she could see without looking in the mirror.


	2. Smell the Roses

Somehow, Antonio ended up using his signing bonus for a down payment on a house with a yard, not the nice, low-maintenance condo he’d envisioned. A yard, and flower beds. 

He went to a hardware store’s garden center, asked for something hard to kill that smelled nice.

“Which is more important?” the kid replied.

He decided he could put in a little effort. Now he’s got honeysuckle overrunning a fence, rose bushes under the windows, heliotropes in the flower beds by the front walk. His mom and sisters think it’s hilarious, Antonio mulching his roses, but his yard smells great.


	3. Puts Hair On Your Chest

Nathan's favorite part, really, is that Antonio doesn't even need to take off his shirt. With those V-necks he always wears, one particular tuft of chest hair is visible all the time. It's even better when he's shirtless, though, because it's not just that one patch in the middle of his chest; it spreads out over his pecs, nearly as thick, and more sparsely, though still evenly, down his abdomen, with a thick central trail leading down to his navel and below. Antonio has yet to let the towel drop, but Nathan still has hopes. It's not just his chest, either - his arms, as much of his legs as Nathan can see, a brown slightly darker than the hair on his head. It's delicious.

It's not just because of that thatch of hair that Nathan makes a point of seeking the the other man out, inviting him for drinks, trying more serious flirtation, but it's definitely a factor. Nathan wants to run his fingers through it, pet it, nuzzle into it; waxing is way too popular these days. When the finally fall into bed together, Antonio surprises him with hands on his face, his chest, and an embarrassed "Your skin's so smooth. I feel like I have a pelt in comparison."

Nathan doesn't even stop his exploration of the rings of hair around the other man's nipples. "I know," he says, happily. "Don't say it like it's a bad thing."


	4. The Way To a Man's Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomoe's reaction might seem excessive unless you've ever had the fried rice at Daikokuya in Los Angeles.
> 
> This was written for the "food porn" square of Trope Bingo, to accompany [a photoset](http://lirillith.tumblr.com/post/45111202593/photoset-and-triple-drabble-for-the-food-porn) (animated gif warning) on Tumblr.

“Oh, my God.”  Tomoe’s eyes closed in obvious bliss.  Kind of… sexual-looking bliss.  “This is _so good_.”  
  
Kotetsu laughed, a bit embarrassed and totally unable to look away.   
  
“You have to try this.  Get some of the pickled ginger too!”  If she had any clue about the face she’d been making, or how he’d reacted to it, she didn’t show it.  
  
He decided right then, before he so much as tasted it.  He was going to learn how to make fried rice that good.  Tomoe would be really impressed, and she’d make that face again, and it would be awesome.

 

* * *

 

Fried rice _seemed_ like it should be easy, but apparently it was significantly more complex than he’d thought.  Eggs were involved somehow, for instance.   
  
When Barnaby saw the way experienced cooks flipped and tossed it, Kotetsu’s pride made more sense.  Barnaby’s attempts at that, at home, always ended up with rice in his face and hair or on the floor.  
  
But damn it, he was going to learn.  He wasn’t going to be defeated by a pan of rice, vegetables, and cooking oil.  He was going to show Kotetsu, out of mingled competitiveness and desire to impress. No matter what.

 

* * *

 

Up to a point, it all made sense.  Kotetsu had tried to feed Bunny fried rice once or twice.  He’d talked about how awesome his fried rice was _way_ more than once or twice.  Bunny figured he loved fried rice like nothing else, so he decided to learn to cook fried rice to impress Kotetsu.    
  
Kotetsu understood.  He understood Bunny crying, demanding he survive to try it.  Understood way too well.  
  
What didn’t make sense was that Bunny still hadn’t tasted his fried rice.  He got it, the fried rice stood for Bunny’s feelings, but what about Kotetsu’s feelings-food, huh?


	5. Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“One minute, huh?”

“Don’t even start, man,” Kotetsu retorts, taking a sip of his shochu. 

“Just saying…”

“They’ve been joking about the time limit ever since I debuted.  I might as well head ‘em off at the pass, right?”  Kotetsu elbows him.  “You care too much about what people think.”

“Hmmph.”  That’s what Nathan likes to say, mostly when Antonio doesn’t want his ass grabbed in public.  But if you ask him, Kotetsu’s the one who cares more, with all his worries about looking cool, about impressing Kaede, about dressing well and having new cars, new phones; his condo was on the Bronze Stage and it was a pigsty, at least until Barnaby entered the picture, but the things people would see him using and wearing, those had to look good.  “Speak for yourself.”

“Fair,” Kotetsu agrees, good-naturedly, which isn’t what Antonio was expecting.  “Guess I just learned to say to hell with it, you know?  Somebody’s got to stand up for the lame-ass old men who run like dorks.”

“And all this time I thought you didn’t realize,” Antonio says.  Kotetsu grins, and Antonio slings an arm around his shoulders.  At first he thinks he’s going to go for the kind of half-headlock he always does, but then he just leaves it at that, an arm around his shoulders, and thinks, _to hell with it,_ and presses a kiss to the side of Kotetsu’s head.


End file.
